Syracuse rolls Marquette to earn Final Four berth

Mar. 30, 2013
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Syracuse's Michael Carter-Williams and forward James Southerland (back) celebrate in the final seconds of the 55-39 win over Marquette, clinching a berth in the Final Four. / Geoff Burke, USA TODAY Sports

by Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports

by Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports

WASHINGTON â?? Exactly three weeks ago, these same Syracuse players sat in their locker room in this same arena following a 61-39 drubbing at the hands of archrival Georgetown.

James Southerland described the scene as "lifeless." Michael Carter-Williams said he and his teammates were "embarrassed." It was the lowest of lows in a roller coaster of a season, and a Final Four berth was far from everyone's minds.

How these same Orange players beat No. 3 seed Marquette on Saturday by nearly the same score â?? 55-39 â?? to earn a trip to Atlanta is nothing short of shocking.

Yes, there's the vaunted 2-3 zone, stifling opponents who are shooting just 29% against it in the NCAA tournament. Yes, there's the East Regional final's most outstanding player, Carter-Williams, playing his best basketball of the season a week after finding out a fire destroyed his family's home. But this also is the same team that lost four of its final five regular-season games and limped into the Big East Tournament.

"It's unbelievable and so sweet because it was not expected," Juli Boeheim, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim's wife, told USA TODAY Sports minutes after Syracuse cut down the nets. "Toward the end of the season, things got so rocky. I'm kind of ashamed I underestimated this team."

She wasn't the only one. The outside world did, too, but not the players, who credit themselves â?? and Daylight Savings Time â?? for their blistering postseason run.

The day after Syracuse's humiliating loss to Georgetown, players showed up to practice at what they thought was the right time. The coaches, who apparently had forgotten to "spring forward," didn't show up.

"We were all at practice early and we decided to still do the usual routine, but we were still going to do it hard," Carter-Williams said. "That's when we came together and took responsibility for ourselves. The coaches can say and do anything they want, but at the end of the day, there are five guys on the court â?¦ and it's all about us."

Carter-Williams, a sophomore, banded together with the seniors, including Southerland, to lead that practice. Southerland said he felt it was necessary for everyone to get on the same page, with or without the coaching staff around. Instead of taking it easy and doing layup lines, they worked on different guard groups and did a 4-on-4 drill, impressing the late-arriving coaches.

"I forgot to set my clock forward," Boeheim said. "So I was a little late, we had a meeting upstairs and when I got down they were playing 4-on-4 and playing hard. I watched them for a few minutes and it was really a good, real good thing. I thought our practices were really good after that."

Since that players-led practice, Syracuse is 7-1, with the lone loss coming to Louisville in the Big East tournament championship game. What the Orange did to knock Marquette out of the NCAA tournament on Saturday afternoon has been the norm, not the exception, during this stretch in which their average margin of victory is 14.

Syracuse suffocated Marquette with its 2-3 zone, which left the Golden Eagles befuddled. Marquette had beaten the zone a month ago â??before the postseason run began â?? but it took a heroic 26-point effort from Davante Gardner to do it.

On Saturday, Gardner had 14, tied with Vander Blue for best on the team, but that didn't say much for a squad that shot just 22.6% from the field and 12.% from beyond the arc. Those numbers, while deplorable, had company; even the nation's best-scoring offense, Indiana, put up comparable statistics two days earlier (33% from the field, 20% from three-point range).

Boeheim said his team has undergone a "transformation" over the past three weeks, one focused on defensive effort, preparation and focus.

"It's pretty much a 180," Syracuse guard Brandon Triche said. "After losing so many games in a row, we stayed positive, but, you know, you can't say we didn't lose confidence."

During this three-week stretch, the Orange have relied on what makes them good, and they honed that. The beauty of their zone is it forces opponents to beat them at their own game. Other teams â?? particularly Big East foes, like Marquette â?? know what's coming, but that doesn't mean they can beat it.

Beating Syracuse's zone is about execution, something that's hard to do against a well-coached defensive unit that has length.

"We collectively tried everything we knew to try," Marquette coach Buzz Williams said. "It is the zone, and it is the players in the zone. â?¦ To compare Syracuse's zone to someone else's zone, I think, is unfair to Coach Boeheim and disrespectful to their players."

To put it simply, the Golden Eagles could not find open looks and could not make shots they say they normally do.

Williams said a few times after the game he hopes and expects Syracuse to win a national championship, which would be Boeheim's second career title if it materializes. In reaching the Final Four, he joins Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith and Rick Pitino as the only coaches to lead teams to Final Four in four different decades. Coaches don't get grouped with legends like that by accident, and Boeheim's wife said she's noticed a different man during this postseason run.

"The closer it gets (to the NCAA tournament), the more serious he gets, and the more he shuts down," Juli said. "He's really focused on the task at hand, a game-by-game situation. He's so intense. His intensity, determination and will really amp up.

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